Severe winter causes over $1B in global insured losses: Aon Benfield

This photo released Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014 by the Massachusetts State Police shows a car being pulled up by wrecker along Interstate 190 in West Boylston, Mass. / AP Photo

Severe winter weather caused more than $1 billion in insured damage globally in February, according to an analysis issued Thursday by Aon Benfield Group Ltd.'s Impact Forecasting unit.

In its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, Impact Forecasting noted that parts of Japan sustained record snowfall last month. The report said that insurers predict that total claims payouts will reach about 60 billion yen ($585 million).

Mid-February's winter storm in the United States wrought insured damages of more than $250 million, while a storm that struck the eastern part of the United States earlier in the month caused more than $150 million in insured damage, according to the analysis.

Storms packing high winds and heavy rains affected western and central Europe in February as well. The most significant of these storms — Windstorm Tini — caused an estimated €500 million ($685 million) in insured losses in Ireland and the United Kingdom, according to the report.